Chapter 294: Chapter 14: Bearing Cause and Effect, Rewarding Virtue
Taihua Mountain, Jade Void Peak Golden Top.
Blanketed in a pure silver dressing, mountain winds howled, and the sea of clouds churned, faintly revealing a Three-legged Golden Tripod.
Whoosh!
Just then, the sea of clouds suddenly rose up, as a purple streak of lightning shot upwards from below, piercing through the vapors of the clouds and bringing a blizzard down upon the Golden Peak.
When the dazzling light had dissipated, a handsome young man in a Taoist robe appeared.
It was Zhou Heng.
“Junior Brother, congratulations on reaching Secret Sixth Rank,” Yan Shouyi approached with a loud laugh, “True Qi has shaped your form, and you can fly away from the ground. Had this been in ancient times, you would have also earned the reputation of an ‘Immortal’.”
“It’s merely the beginning of Innate; how can I claim the title of an ‘Immortal’?” Zhou Heng shook his head and forced a smile, “Brother, in truth, my return to the mountain this time is to seek answers to some questions.”
“I could sense you had doubts in your heart,” Yan Shouyi smiled, walking to the stone table at the edge of the cliff, flicked his finger, and two cups of tea suddenly appeared on the table. He sat down and said, “Come, let’s talk.”
“Alright.” Zhou Heng followed and sat across from Yan Shouyi, speaking in a deep voice, “Brother, what is ‘merit’?”
“Merit?” Yan Shouyi was momentarily stunned by the question, then laughed, “Junior Brother, are you trying to collect the energy of merit?”
“That’s right.” Zhou Heng nodded without concealing his intention, “It is needed for my cultivation method.”
“I see,” Yan Shouyi did not press further but smiled and explained, “Being sincere brings merit, being virtuous brings deeds; utmost sincerity and virtue define merit. This is a common interpretation in both Buddhism and Daoism.
“However, if we speak in terms of the Martial Path, merit has another explanation. Buddhism discusses cause and effect, Daoism speaks of bearing the burden. Although the meanings differ somewhat, both actually speak about how one’s actions bring about various kinds of responses from heaven and earth, and merit is one of these responses.”
“There is a saying ‘Heaven and earth are not benevolent, treating all creatures as straw dogs’; why would there be any recompense from heaven and earth?” Zhou Heng questioned, for if heaven and earth had feelings, then there must be partiality, and the rules of the world would be out of order.
“Heaven and earth are not benevolent, treating all creatures as straw dogs…” Yan Shouyi murmured to himself, slowly chewing on these words, then clapped in admiration, “What a vivid description, so profound in meaning; Junior Brother, you should write down this statement.”
“No, no, no, Brother, I heard it from an ancient sage,” Zhou Heng hastened to clarify with a wave of his hand, shaking his head.
He wouldn’t dare plagiarize this statement; even if he had the guts to encompass the heavens, he wouldn’t dare, for the Chart of Supreme Riding the Ox was still stored in his Qiankun silk pouch. Although its effects were unclear, caution was paramount.
“Truly the words of a great sage,” Yan Shouyi praised without end, then after a pause continued, “Junior Brother, you’re not wrong. Heaven and earth are not benevolent, impartial and unfeeling, yet that does not mean there will not be recompense because it is part of the natural laws.
“All things in the world generate and restrain each other; nothing exists that does not affect something else. Every action of any thing will have an impact on other things, just as when you walk, the ground supports you as your feet press down on it, this is the principle.”
“So, the action of forces is mutual?” Zhou Heng mused to himself, feeling somewhat enlightened, and asked, “Does Brother mean to say that merit and recompense are actually the natural feedback from heaven and earth to certain behaviors?”
“Exactly,” Yan Shouyi nodded lightly, visibly gratified, and smiled, “The more your actions align with the current rules of operation of heaven and earth, or the closer they are to certain fundamental Law principles, the more likely you are to receive heaven and earth’s feedback, which includes merit.
“To some extent, this process of aligning with the fundamental Law principles is very similar to Absolute Fourth Rank sensing and approaching the Law. That is why when a Grandmaster breaks through to Celestial Man, it is sometimes called ‘Perfection of Merit’.”
“In our world, the prevailing trend of laws is to resist and exterminate demon entities, evil creatures, and ghost immortals. Actually, killing these beings is a way of accumulating meritorious energy.”
“But I’ve also killed quite a number of ghost immortals, evil creatures, and demon entities,” Zhou Heng said with a frown. “Why haven’t I succeeded in gathering meritorious qi?”
“Because you are still too insignificant.” Yan Shouyi shook his head slightly, saying, “To this world, your strength is negligible; the spirits and demons you kill are too weak to elicit the world’s meritorious feedback.”
“Just like a common person punching a mountain, he would only feel a slight pain, instead of being crushed by the mountain into dust, right?”
“Hmm… that makes sense.” Zhou Heng nodded, still somewhat puzzled, and said, “But Brother, I don’t think I’ve even felt that slight pain.”
“Little brother, what do you think the Zhou Tian Boundary Officer’s good deeds are?” Yan Shouyi said with a smile that wasn’t quite a smile, “Do you think they are just a trade tool designed out of thin air?”
“…” Zhou Heng was awakened by that remark and suddenly understood a lot, joyfully saying, “So that’s how it is; good deeds are actually extremely subtle feedback of meritorious energy. No wonder killing spirits and demons yields good deeds.”
“Exactly,” Yan Shouyi nodded and laughed.
“If I accumulate enough good deeds, is there a way to aggregate them into meritorious energy?” Zhou Heng suddenly wondered.
“That’s not possible,” Yan Shouyi laughed, “Good deeds, although they are subtle feedback of meritorious energy, are fundamentally different.”
“The idea of aggregating good deeds into meritorious energy is like a common person pushing a mountain ten thousand times and wanting to concentrate the feedback from those ten thousand pushes—it’s obviously not possible.”
“Then, if I were to kill a Middle Third Rank spirit or demon, could I then receive meritorious energy?” Zhou Heng speculated, thinking about the rules of the Zhou Tian star chart, where Martial Artists of the Middle Third Rank get very little good deeds for killing spirits and demons.
This does not conform to the laws of the world.
Perhaps it is because at this level, they can already affect the operation of the world’s laws to a certain extent, and exterminating Middle Third Rank spirits and demons directly garners meritorious energy—the good deeds are just the leftover scraps, naturally becoming less.
And for a Middle Third Rank powerhouse to exterminate Lower Third Rank spirits and demons, that’s like a common person crushing a clump of earth—it hardly requires any effort, so the feedback obtained naturally plummets.
“That’s right, but it’s still not possible at the Secret Six Rank; you need to reach Sect Fifth Rank,” Yan Shouyi said.
“Now?” Zhou Heng noticed a problem.
“Yes, now, because the world’s laws are subject to change,” Yan Shouyi sighed softly, “Perhaps in a few years, even exterminating Secret Six Rank will gain meritorious energy.”
“…” Zhou Heng fell silent at those words.
He had understood what Yan Shouyi meant; the lower threshold for gaining meritorious energy indicates that the crisis of this world is intensifying, the operating laws are changing, and feedback will be easier to obtain.
“Little brother, for you right now, dealing with Sect Fifth Rank spirits and demons is still too dangerous,” Yan Shouyi changed the subject, smilingly said, “I just thought of a good way to collect meritorious qi.”
—Ghost spirits at Sect Fifth Rank might ascend to be Ghost Immortals, and evil creatures at Sect Fifth Rank might ascend to be malevolent spirits, both greatly increasing in danger.
“What method?” Zhou Heng asked curiously.